Fred Hostetler New Album – Fortuna Redux

Fred Hostetler, Blues Musician, Singer and Songwriter has once again created in his latest release an album that is more than just it’s tracks.

Fortuna Redux* is the third album release by Fred Hostetler since returning in 2018 from 17 years in India. This latest album is a compilation of his released singles which have been either remixed with additional recording or given a fresh arrangement. The exception is a new original song ‘Lady Luck Fortuna Redux’ for which the album is titled.

To start this review on an intellectual spin, lets look at the title first…

Fortuna was the goddess of fortune and personification of luck, she might bring good luck or bad: she could be represented as veiled and blind, as in modern depictions of Justice, and came to represent life’s capriciousness. She was also a goddess of fate.

Redux – “brought back” or “bringing back.”

So together, the Goddess Fortuna Redux is “one who brings another safely home, and with this album, Fred Hostetler brings you back and brings you home.

Starting with the first track, Taming the Wolf 2, Fred draws you in with a sound of electrified strings and his singularly unique sound, telling us of personal growth and transformation, making his way from his beginnings to where he is now, and whether this is a mythical personification in verse or an analogy of his own travels, it is an all-true story of a life lived, and a way of living learned. Shelter from the Storm is interpreted with a robust musical power, with a sense of urgency lyrically, his point of view, is life depends on the need for shelter, for relief, for salvation.

The album turns even more introspective, and poetic with Rain on my Window Pane, I have to say I really enjoy Fred’s voicing ion this track, his vocal merge so beautifully with the music, as more of an instrument, the blues timber of experience in living is so evident. He then follows with his sublime rendition of Ain’t No Sunshine, a song made famous by the late great Bill Withers, Fred released this very shortly after Withers passing, dedicating it to the late artist as tribute to the masterful lyricist.

Lady Luck Fortuna Redux brings in the new offering, and as if channeling the conception of rebirth, it is the story of a new life, a new beginning. In commentary, I would like to offer this opinion, Fred Hostetler is an artist of mature years, and walked a long road and has traveled the labyrinth in many ways, yet in song his voice sounds young, yet wise beyond time, I would think this is from his time in India, a land with a mythical and magical world within.

He’s Gone Rouge was released during the Trump presidency, a true political piece, Fred voicing his interpretation of the madness of the 4 terrifying years with the would-be dictator 45 (These are not Fred Hostetler’s words, but the words of this writer).

The album ends with a new start, I’m A New Man Now, a very bold and rocking blues infused song, high energy, very electric and very robust. Fred really packed a lot into 4 min and 12 seconds of personal empowerment and sheer joy.

I have reviewed many of Fred’s works and his albums, and each and everyone is better than the last, and just when I though he could not out do himself, I am gladfully, and gleefully proved wrong. Fred Hostetler is a voice to be admired and his music is a power to be revered.

Listen to his album at https://fredsheartradio.com/album/2046541/fortuna-redux

The album Fortuna Redux is available at his website https://fredsheartradio.com/home

Follow Fred on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/bluebynature/